Vincent van Gogh | Cafe Terrace at Night
Vincent van Gogh | Cafe Terrace at Night
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- 100% hand-painted oil on canvas
- Delivered Framed & Ready to Hang!
- We stretch (Gallery Wrap) every canvas
- Hanging wire is attached to the back
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About Cafe Terrace at Night by Vincent van Gogh
Painted in September 1888 on the Place du Forum in Arles, Café Terrace at Night was the first canvas in which Van Gogh set a scene beneath a star-filled sky — an idea he returned to the following year in The Starry Night.
He worked outdoors at night and made a point of using no black at all. The darkness is built entirely from deep blues and violets; the terrace glows in gas-lit yellow and orange, and the two are pushed hard against each other so the light seems to radiate off the canvas. The cobbles catch it. A few figures sit at the tables, and a waiter in white stands among them.
Van Gogh wrote to his sister that he was enormously enjoying painting on the spot at night. The café still stands in Arles, restyled for the visitors the painting brings.
Cafe Terrace at Night at a glance
- Artist: Vincent van Gogh (1853–1890)
- Painted: September 1888, Arles
- Movement: Post-Impressionism
- Original: Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo, Netherlands
- Medium: Oil on canvas, 80.7 × 65.3 cm
Common questions about Cafe Terrace at Night
Where is Cafe Terrace at Night now?
The Kröller-Müller Museum in Otterlo, in the Netherlands — a museum built around the collection of Helene Kröller-Müller, who bought Van Gogh's work early and in quantity. It holds the second-largest Van Gogh collection in the world after the Van Gogh Museum.
Where was it painted, and does the café still exist?
On the Place du Forum in Arles, in the south of France, and yes — the café is still there. It has been repainted in the yellow of the picture and renamed for the painting, and is now largely a stop for visitors rather than the ordinary local terrace Van Gogh sat in front of.
When was Cafe Terrace at Night painted?
Mid-September 1888, during Van Gogh's most productive period in Arles, and about two months before Gauguin arrived to live with him at the Yellow House.
What is Cafe Terrace at Night about?
On the surface, an ordinary evening on a lit terrace. What Van Gogh was chasing was a technical problem: painting night without using black. Some writers have read a Last Supper composition into it — a central long-haired figure in white, twelve seated figures, a cross-shaped window behind — but Van Gogh never mentioned any such intention, and the reading came long after his death.
How much is Cafe Terrace at Night worth?
It is part of the Kröller-Müller Museum's permanent collection and is not for sale. For scale, the highest price paid for a Van Gogh at auction is around US$117 million, for Orchard with Cypresses in 2022.
Own a hand-painted Cafe Terrace at Night
This is not a print. Every painting we sell is reproduced in oils on canvas, by hand, by professional artists — no giclée, no computer-generated technique.
What makes this painting hard to reproduce is that there is no black in it. The night is built from blue and violet sitting directly against gas-lit yellow, and the glow comes entirely from those colours being pitched against each other at the right intensity. Printing shifts that balance — inks darken the blues and the terrace stops radiating. Mixed and laid down by hand in oils, the relationship holds, and the light behaves the way Van Gogh built it.
- A range of sizes — choose yours above.
- Framed and ready to hang, gallery wrap, or rolled canvas if you would rather frame it yourself.
- 30-day money-back guarantee, no questions.
- Free delivery Australia-wide. Australian owned and operated, with a local contact you can actually reach.
Framing Options: You have 3 choices
Option 1. Choose an outer frame - see images below.
You only need to choose one and the painting will be sent to you framed and ready to hang.
* Below is an example of a customer who chose the Gold Ornate frame
Option 2: Choose a Gallery Wrap Stretched Painting.
If you want the frameless modern gallery wrap look then you only need to choose Stretched Gallery Wrap from the finish option dropdown.
You receive your stretched gallery wrap painting ready to hang - with a hanging wire attached behind.
The back of the Stretched Gallery Wrap looks like the image below - it has a hanging wire!
Option 3: Choose Canvas Only if you want to frame the painting yourself.
Your painting will be sent to you in an art tube - you can then frame it yourself or take it to your local framer.
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The quality of the work is ten out of ten. The piece was affordable and the turnaround time was quite quick. What you see is what you get. I’ll definitely be getting my next painting from Direct Art Australia.
My wife already had a couple of pieces of custom ordered paintings she had collected throughout the last few years and with your large selection to choose from she found the perfect complimentary piece to finish off her room.
Great painting. Brightens up my living room.
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Product is as good or better than expected. Beautiful quality, very well packaged and delivered as promised. Very happy indeed with this artwork.
